The Pains of Being Late
by Dr. Captain Pepper
Summary: Because life is a lot easier when you are early...


It was a beep, a simple beep signifying just finished rice. The cooker alerted the house with its quick and loud beeps, the cooker did it only once. The beeps were the first sounds Enma heard; Adelheid had finished making breakfast.

So like any sleepy boy, eyes clamped shut as if to hide from the sun, he started to wiggle his toes. This naturally moved to ankle rolls and ended with him finally sitting up. Then the eyes crack open. Enma's deep red eyes finally see that so much of the morning has past in the bright room. He's also the last one awake. This means he's stuck putting up everyone's mattresses. The unlucky Boss only sighs.

But the mattresses find their proper place, and Enma finally finds the kitchen. Inside his six other roommates are currently eating in comfortable silence. "Finally decide to join the world?" asks Julie in his everyday tone of sarcasm. "You should be thankful, thankful we even left you any servings," chimes the ever-insulting Koyo—until Adelheid smacks the glasses off his face. Enma simply snickers and replies, "I guess so."

After his first reminder of why one should not be late, Enma joins his family at the table, finding his place between Raiji and Shitt P. Before he can even grab a pair of worn chopsticks, Adelheid has placed a bowl of rice, a plate of eggs and hotdogs, and a glass of orange juice in front of him. Stupefied. That is the look on Enma's face. But he grabs his chopsticks and quickly thanks her, eating his share of food as if it were a race.

With his dishes rinsed off in the sink and his body dressed in fresh clothes (wrinkled from their night in the dryer), Enma takes a moment to make sure he looks okay: typical mussed up hair, rumpled t-shirt hidden under his favorite black jean jacket, black jeans, and dirty purple tennis. Just as the lackadaisical teen rakes one hand though his hair, the other grabs his tattered up backpack. Out. The. Door.

"I'll be home later," he mutters while shutting the door—his jacket clinging onto the door handle—before toppling over like a dead fish.

Watching the closed door making all kinds of noise, Koyo looks over to Julie with crossed arms. "I bet he comes home beat up again."

The smartly dressed teen gives Koyo a dirty smirk. "I don't gamble with idiots."

* * *

Enma's feet keep a leisurely gait as he travels down the road to his usual 'out of school hang out spot.' His mind is holding no particular thoughts and his face has no particular expression. It is only Enma and the music—with no dancing involved. The tunes creep out of his headphones at low decibels as Enma's eyes stare at the playlist on his phone. Just as he picks a different song the feeling of instant pain smacks him in the face.

"Did you see that? Lambo-san's super shot clocked that guy in the face!" cries a cow print-wearing child in sheer pleasure.

"Uwah! Lambo! That was bad! Haru won't take you out to play anymore if you are going to be mean to strangers!" The girl takes another look at Lambo's target that is lying on the asphalted road a few meters ahead of them. "Hai! Even worse, you hit one of Tsuna's friends!"

Lambo's head cocks innocently. "It's not like he can do anything. _Enma is a stupid head like stupidera_." Then the little boy's expression goes back to its usual self-assured one as he cutely rocks his body forward onto his tiptoes. "In fact," he now whispers to Haru with wide eyes, "He's STUPIDER!"

Haru is in the midst of a serious 'talk' with her little friend as Enma sits himself up and begins to rub the throbbing part of his cheek. The girl's voice can be heard over the rustling trees nearby and the chirping birds, somewhat over the in route traffic too. But weirdly enough, as Enma stands himself up and dusts himself off, Haru's voice sounds less and less like her own and more like a car horn.

Then comes more pain.

A fair amount of time passes, and Enma is no longer on the street. His eyes open slowly at first, but when he realizes there is someone touching him he jolts awake. "Uwah!"

"Hai!" screams the person attending to his wounds.

"Gwah! Zombie!" cries her little helper. Like a just-cracked dam, tears flow down the green-eyed boy's little cheeks and he runs away to the safest place he knows (the neighborhood playground, under the slide). He is gone in an instant.

Haru remains in her kneeling position next to Enma, unsure of whom to help. _Help the six year old that believes Enma is now a zombie, or help her future husband's friend who just got hit by the pizza boy's motor scooter?_

"What happened?" asks Enma, who is now sitting himself up on the grassy hill. His body hurts, but does well not to show it. Enma also takes note of Haru's diffident expression he finds to be strange. He is not sure why she is making it. _Is there something wrong with my face?_ The possibility seems more probable by the second. "What is it?" He finally asks.

"Huh?" She responds. Then she realizes that Enma is talking to her. "Oh Enma-kun, are you okay? Would you like me to call an ambulance?"

Gingerly rubbing his cheek, he says, "It's fine, this kind of stuff happens all the time."

"Getting hit by pizza guys mid delivery?!" she questions in an astonished tone.

"Uhh, no. Just the part where I get hurt."

"Oh."

The two sit next to each other quietly for a few moments, Enma waiting for his pain to subside and Haru watching him with much intent. On occasion he gives his watcher quick, awkward glances. Small, but full lips covered in what looks like sticky lip-gloss. Somewhat button nose, slightly bulbous too. Long curled lashes that have mascara on them. It is as his eyes start to trail down Haru's neck that Enma realizes how creepy he probably looks. Haru believed those quick glances were shyness.

Finally Enma stands himself up and asks, "Do you know where my backpack is?" His tender, scraped up hands patting his pants realize that something else is missing too. "Or my phone?"

Haru's eyes spark. "Right here!"

She hands him a backpack that looks as if it went through a tug of war match between two ravenous dogs and a cell phone that looks completely unscathed. Enma sighed in relief at his phone's miraculous escape until he flips it open and sees the shattered screen. The optimism drops. This is when Haru slyly adds, "But your headphones are completely shattered on the road," pointing to the street behind her where cars are driving in both directions.

Enma's expression is dismal enough for a funeral. He just scratches his head and slings his tattered backpack up on his shoulder, walking away. "Thanks for your help, Miura-san."

"Wait! Something is coming out of your bag."

Enma looks back; his is backpack leaving a trail of multicolored crumbs. He sighs.

"What is that?" Haru asks with her head cocked to the side. Enma's eyes hone in on the girl's large brown eyes.

"Food for some stray cats I feed."

The girl's curious expression morphs into one of sympathy. "Oh! Those poor kitties." Enma watches Haru's eyes trail to the ground, her slender fingers gripping onto leggings that fit snugly. He looks away quickly. And right when he starts turning to leave, Enma hears Haru then declare, "I must help those kitties." The petite girl stands and grabs Enma's hand, surprising the boy as she adds, "Enma-kun, you must let me help you with those kitties!"

"Uh. Well… They aren't really in trouble… They're just some strays I—"

She grips his hand harder and begins to drag him along smiling. "Let's go, Enma-kun! I can't wait to meet your kitty friends!"

* * *

Enma lightly shakes the tattered box of kibble, and the grass around the two teens rustles. Haru squirms in excitement. Under the bridge is calm and cool, the sun unable to reach them. One lighter shake of box, and Enma's smaller and furred friend start to appear. First come the kittens meowing and chatting away, soon after come the fatter ones who are ready to eat.

"Aww!" cries Haru ecstatically. Her hands clench tightly around Enma's arm, fighting her desire to run over to them and hug them to death. Her injured counterpart winces slightly to the bruise she is squeezing on, but still manages a smile. "You'll scare them away."

Haru shirks. "Okay… but they are just so cute~." Her smile is unfading.

Enma pours all of the food into a pile on the ground, and the cats amble their way to it. Then as the others are busy eating an older gray cat joins the group. But unlike the other cats, this one prowls over to Enma and rubs along his black jeans. Its tail whips side to side like a metronome. The red haired boy crouches down and begins to pet the cat, a second later he looks over to Haru. "This one is Crow."

"It's a cat." Haru corrects.

Enma laughs. "No. His name is Crow."

Then she gets it. "Oh…" she crouches down and puts her hand out. "Hi Crow."

The two sit and watch over the cat pack and talk mostly about them. Before long the felines finish eating. Some stay, a few go. Some of the kittens even display their battle prowess for the two. The sun is beginning to hide behind the taller buildings of Namimori and the weather cools more, so the two wander out from under the bridge and onto the hill leading back to the neighborhood. Enma is pulling blades of grass out of the ground to make a grass whistle, Haru is sitting beside him watching.

"Haru! Haru!" Yells an encroaching familiar voice.

Haru and Enma both stop and look at each other. "Tsuna?"

They hear their friend call Haru's name again only to hear stamping feet right after. Tsuna, unnoticing of his friends so close, stops at the top of the hill panting loudly. He pushes against his knees to keep his tired body up "I've got to find Haru," he helplessly cries between pants, "She's in danger!"

"I'm not in any danger," Haru declares.

Tsuna snaps upright and sees his two friends sitting on the hill and looking back at him in a confused fashion. Then he twitches in a weird way that could only be disbelief. "Lambo said something about zombies!"

Haru looks at Enma questioningly then has an epiphany. "Oh, that's because Enma got hit by a motor scooter." Though Enma was caught by that cute look Haru just gave him, he forced himself to look back at Tsuna.

"Wait, what? Enma got hit by a car?!" Tsuna repeats in exasperation.

Enma shrugs his shoulders and nods.

"Yeah, but he's okay now," Haru adds. "He took me to meet his kitty friends."

Tsuna stand at looks at the two, downright perturbed. He does not know what to make of everything going on, or what ever just happened. The boy scratches his scalp nervously and finally says, "Okay, well Reborn told me I should come save you, but it seems—"

"You came to save me?" Haru asks, her expression becoming awestruck.

"Well, yeah. I had to…" Tsuna looks away, muttering extraneous details under his breath about a certain home tutor. The grassy hill under Haru and Enma rustles loudly, and Haru instantly springs to her feet in excitement. "Oh, my Tsuna-kun!" the young girl cries. Her body almost rips from the seams as she races to latch onto _her future husband_. Enma only watches, his eyes fixed on Haru's pleased expression. Her big brown eyes that have almost disappeared under her wide, toothless smile. It feels like a pause in time. It feels like a budding romance. "It looks like I'm too late," the boy mutters under his breath.

* * *

**Hello, Howdy, How do you do?**

I hoped you liked the story, commentary is appreciated. Hoping to get back into the swing of FFnet writing quickly so I can finish all my stories I have going. Peace out homies. (hahahaha.)

Word Count: 2,024  
Beta: Ausumist

**-Captain-**


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